The Ultimate Secret to Aiming (for noobs)

Warning: This guide is written for those who have been unable to get a chicken dinner; those who have KDA under 0.5 and/or under 50 damage dealt, so if you’re better than that, you may not need to read this.

You’re running around, just another regular day in Erangel, when suddenly, you encounter an enemy. There’s no place to hide in the open field; so, you start shooting, and the enemy shoots you too. But you are the one who dies. You start to feel that vein in your forehead growing; that anger. Why? Why did I die when we both were shooting each other? The noob leaves Erangel and heads to the Rift.

Why don’t my bullets go straight? Why can’t I hit the enemy? Here, I will reveal the ultimate truth about why you can’t simply hit your enemy. This fact may be very surprising; you may be shocked at this unbelievable secret.

The secret is, that ultimate truth is:

You are NOT shooting the enemy. It may seem that you are shooting at the enemy, and yet your bullets are flying by their ponytail and grey trench coat. If you put your aim cursor exactly on the enemy and pull your trigger, there’s no reason why the enemy would not get hit, right? Unless the system has an bug, causing your actual aim to tilt like 45 degrees to the right, or unless you’ve been hacked so you shoot BB ammo instead of actual bullets, if your crosshair was on the enemy, there is should be no reason at all.

It doesn’t matter if your M16A is in burst mode, if you have a fully equipped M416, or if you have a suppressed Kar98; it does not matter. You are simply not shooting the enemy. Even if you watch many videos of pros, look on Wikipedia for tips and read everything, if you’re not hitting the enemy and are just firing randomly at the area around your enemy, you can’t win.

I’ve asked many FPS players how to have good aim, but every single one of them answered the same thing. “It’s just natural talent.” “If you want to have better aim, you need to be born again.”

Yes. They’re right. Frankly, having good aim is based on pure talent. If you, who has a KDA under 0.5, meet a pro in the game 100 times in a 1v1 situation, you will lose at least 99 times for sure. But it’s alright, actually; that guy sitting next to you wearing a parachute is usually a kindred spirit.

Stay calm while you aim.It’s not your actual life on the line. Don’t tremble.

How to aim: the first tip. Put your crosshair properly, calmly on the enemy, and shoot.

Yeah, I know. If you hear footsteps, your heart starts to pound wildly, as if Thor is hitting it with his hammer, and the enemy seems like he’s using multiple shadow clone techniques and you see two, three of them; how can you possibly aim properly at the enemy?

However, even if you meet a pro, if you aim properly at the enemy’s helmetless head, it takes only one shot. One shot for him and that other guy too. So just think of aiming properly at that enemy.

It’s all in your mind. Don’t be a coward, and shoot properly. There’s no need to be tense, you’re not playing PUBG while risking your actual life. It’s only a game, and if you die, you can just try again. So even if you die a thousand times, just put your crosshair properly on the enemy before you shoot; even if it’s slow.

If you continue to practice this, the time needed for you to aim properly at the enemy will decrease. So depending on your talent, there will be a limit to the amount of time you can reduce, but that should be enough to kill your fellow noobs.

Shoot only when you’ve placed your crosshair properlyUse single shots before shooting full-auto. You’ll die if you can’t kill them in that one chance.

If your aim is getting better through practice, it’s time to shoot. The problem is that your aim shakes whenever you shoot. A gun fires by using an impact to ignite the gunpowder in the bullet, which pushes the bullet out with a small explosion. This explosion causes the gun to shake, and naturally, your aim shakes. If you shoot full-auto, the explosion is continuous and makes the recoil worse.

The details aren’t important; what’s important is that your aim is shaking from recoil. So to hit the enemy properly, you need to minimize the recoil. One of the best ways is taking one shot at a time. Again, if you shoot their head, the enemy dies if they don’t have a helmet on. It doesn’t matter if they’re a pro gamer or even a dev of PUBG. If you shoot their head, regardless the gun, it’s the quickest and most ammo-conserving method.

If the distance between you and the enemy is short, using full-auto is a good choice. There’s a high chance you’ll hit the enemy, even with all the recoil, if it’s in close range. However, there’s a big difference in accuracy according to the person’s skill in handling recoil. Some people get kills using full-auto at a far distance, but some people can’t handle it even if it’s melee range. You have to find the maximum distance at which you can manage the recoil, and use single shots if it’s further than that. If you’re shooting an AR, 4-5 shots will do the trick.

One thing to remember: after you shoot, if your enemy survives longer, your chance of surviving decreases. Especially if the enemy is a skilled player, their counter attack will be faster. Time your attack carefully, and kill the enemy by seizing the right moment. The title of Marksman is earned, not given.

The Advanced part of How to AimPeeker’s Advantage and Peek shot.

Now, if you are able to shoot the enemy without trembling, you are ready to face another truth. You’re actually shooting the after-image of your enemy. You are seeing the enemy move a bit later than his actual movement, depending on the condition of your internet (from .1 sec to more than 1 sec). So your enemy is actually moving slightly faster than what you see on your monitor.

▲ A good example of peeker’s advantage. The enemy is already shooting me, but I haven’t seen him yet.

Because of this, when you start fighting, it is advantageous to get in position and shoot before your enemy does. This is called peeker’s advantage. The easiest way to take advantage of this is the peek shot. If you hide behind something, and peek with Q or E, only the smallest portion of your body can be seen by your enemy. This skill is one of the most used skills and also the most useful skill in PUBG.

Here's a quiz.

Q. The following is describing how to do peek shots. Place them in proper order.

a. Hide behind any coverb. Peek and tiltc. Aim at the enemyd. Shoot

The quiz describes how to do the peek shot. What is the answer? Obviously, a and d should be the first and last. So the answer is a-b-c-d or a-c-b-d. It’s intuitive to say a-b-c-d, but there’s a critical downfall to this answer. You have to reveal yourself during the time you aim at your enemy. It gets more and more dangerous with every millisecond you take to aim at the enemy.

So, the proper answer would be a-c-b-d. The best way would be aiming at the enemy before you tilt.

‘Is that even possible? Aiming at the enemy before I tilt?’

It depends on your position and your enemy’s position. It’s easy. Get yourself in position to tilt, where you can see your enemy, and simply put your white crosshair (before you zoom in) on your enemy. You can see that when you tilt, your crosshair will be somewhat close to where you put it before. This will reduce the time needed to aim at the enemy, and it will be a much safer and efficient way to shoot the enemy.

▲ Aiming at the wheel of the buggy before tilting.▲ Even after you tilt, the crosshair doesn't move much.